I think SVG deserves to coach a championship contender again. Going to the Bobcats would be an insult to the man. SVG may be known for being a bit full on with his players, but he sticks up for them, alot like Sloan and Popovich, in that sort of mold.

migya wrote:I think SVG deserves to coach a championship contender again. Going to the Bobcats would be an insult to the man. SVG may be known for being a bit full on with his players, but he sticks up for them, alot like Sloan and Popovich, in that sort of mold.

Realistically though, who would he go to? I thought maybe the Hawks could use him before he was fired and before they announced they were keeping their coach. Knicks are a possibility right now I think, but it looks like they are keeping their interim head coach. There is not a lot of options for him at this point.

migya wrote:I think SVG deserves to coach a championship contender again. Going to the Bobcats would be an insult to the man. SVG may be known for being a bit full on with his players, but he sticks up for them, alot like Sloan and Popovich, in that sort of mold.

Realistically though, who would he go to? I thought maybe the Hawks could use him before he was fired and before they announced they were keeping their coach. Knicks are a possibility right now I think, but it looks like they are keeping their interim head coach. There is not a lot of options for him at this point.

Many teams will want him. Some that I can think of are Utah, Minnesota, Atlanta and New York. Those teams are playoff teams, Minnesota came close most of the season, that could be better with a very good coach.

Dwight Howard wants out of Orlando, the events of yesterday notwithstanding, a source close to Howard tells SheridanHoops.com

On the day coach Stan Van Gandy and general manager Otis Smith lost their jobs with the Magic, a source who has spoken with Howard recently said the All-Star center desperately wants to be traded prior to the start of next season.

And although the Brooklyn Nets are still considered the frontrunner, “it is not going to be a one-horse race,” the source said, listing the Mavericks, Knicks and — to a lesser degree — the Clippers and Lakers as among the destinations that would appeal to Howard.

When the news first broke Monday that Van Gundy had been fired and Smith had agreed to leave, the knee-jerk reaction was to assume that Howard had won the power struggle, and the Magic would now empower him to have a say in who the new hires would be — provided he agreed to sign a contract extension and commit to the Magic for the long term.

But in fact, the source said, Howard wants out of Orlando more than he ever did before in order to start a new chapter of his career. And it is well-known throughout the league that the Magic do not want to endure another soap opera season like the one they just experienced.

How do you fire a player? Doesn't he just get released? lol. Why can't they just use that word? I am tired of the Howard debacle to tell you the truth. Ever since those Lakers rumors started last season.Love Stan Van Gundy, he calls it like he sees it and the Magic should feel honored that he's their coach.

The Orlando Magic have begun to seriously consider offers to accommodate Dwight Howard’s desire to be traded, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

The Magic reached out to teams Saturday and told them that they’ll discuss proposals about moving Howard, sources said.

Howard and his agent, Dan Fegan, have repeatedly told the Magic in recent weeks that Howard wants to be moved, and that his preferred destination of the Brooklyn Nets hasn’t changed, sources said.

Nevertheless, time is running out for Howard to be traded to Brooklyn because Nets general manager Billy King has begun to aggressively explore deals for players like Joe Johnson, Luis Scola and O.J. Mayo in an attempt to surround free-agent point guard Deron Williams with more talent. Williams is choosing between the Nets and Dallas Mavericks and could make a decision in the next several days. Sources say Williams' patience with waiting for Howard to eventually come to Brooklyn is wearing out, and that he’s likely to make his decision whether to accept the Nets' five-year, $100 million contract offer devoid of Howard as a factor.

The Nets are working to re-sign their own free agents – including Brook Lopez and Gerald Wallace – and their salary cap will be too congested to sign Howard as a free agent next summer. For now, Brooklyn could include Lopez in a sign-and-trade with young players and future draft picks for Howard, but the Nets probably can’t construct the most attractive package for Orlando.

The Houston Rockets remain determined to try to land Howard, and have several young players to offer as part of a package.

Dwight surely has done enough for the Orlando FO to get rid of him. They've got to get the best deal possible for him as soon as possible.

I'd ship him West, preferably to the Lakers for Bynum and PGasol. They'd have to likely give a resigned RAnderson as well, but that's alright, I think Bynum and PGasol are a little better.

Dwight said he wants to go to the Nets above other teams, but Orlando probably wouldn't want what the Nets can give. I think the best deal the Nets can give is resigned BLopez, Humphries and resigned GWallace, but even that's got holes with Orlando having to then get rid of players like Turkoglu and not resigning RAnderson.

Thay have to get rid of Dwight as soon as they can for as much as they can.

Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard told Yahoo! Sports he will not re-sign with a team outside his preferred list that trades for him, and emphatically denied that he ever used the term "blackmail" to describe how Magic officials convinced him to waive his early termination option.

As the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets and other teams prepare possible trade offers for him, Howard told Yahoo! by phone that, "There’s only one team on my list and if I don’t get traded there, I'll play the season out and explore my free agency after that."

Howard wouldn’t specify the team, but multiple league sources believe that it is the Brooklyn Nets.

Howard also denied an ESPN report that he had told people Orlando Magic officials had “blackmailed” him into forgoing the early termination option on his contract that ultimately cost him his free agency this summer.

"I never used the word blackmail in reference to any of my dealings with the Magic," Howard said. “I never said that. It’s defamatory and it’s inaccurate. I know what blackmail means and any report that I used the term incorrectly is inaccurate."

[Related: Magic entertaining trade offers for Dwight Howard]

Howard met with new Magic general manager Rob Hennigan on Friday in Los Angeles, and said he told Hennigan of his desire to be traded. However, Howard insisted he was merely repeating a position he had made clear to Magic officials since waiving his ETO in March.

"This was not the first time [that I asked for trade]," Howard said. "I communicated this to [Magic president] Alex [Martins] and [former general manager] Otis [Smith] way before Friday that I wanted to be traded – months before this meeting with Rob Hennigan. That was all way before Stan [Van Gundy] got fired."

Howard is rehabilitating from back surgery, and wouldn’t speculate on whether he could be prepared to return for the start of the regular season. Howard had a herniated disk repaired, and sizable fragments of bone removed on April 20. Before the diagnosis that Howard would require season-ending surgery late in the Magic's regular season, Howard had heard the suggestions inside and outside the organization that perhaps he wasn’t truly injured, that maybe he had bailed on his team.

"I’ve never faked anything," Howard told Yahoo! Sports. "I’d never fake a back injury to not play for my team. I played a lot of games in a lot of pain, and there were times that I was crying in the locker room afterward because I was so seriously hurt. But I kept fighting. I’ve played with a cracked sternum in the past, and played with a lot of different [injuries].

"This time, I couldn't play. Regardless of what people say, 'Hey, you’re Superman,' I'm a man. I bleed. And I have bones, too. And something happened that I couldn’t control.

"It really upset me that anyone would say that I was doing something out of spite for my team or my city. I have the utmost respect for the Magic organization, for the people of Orlando. Everything I did was from my heart, and I would never do anything to betray my city."

[Related: Nets discussing possible trade with Hawks for Joe Johnson]

Howard discussed something else that had become synonymous with his season, and that was the bizarre April 5 shootaround in Orlando when his former coach, Stan Van Gundy, told reporters that Orlando management had informed him that Howard had requested his firing. The video of Howard walking into a scrum of reporters, unaware of what Van Gundy had said, went viral. Ultimately, it became a flashpoint of criticism toward Howard.

When asked if he felt set up, Howard told Yahoo! Sports: “I did. I had no clue about what had happened, about what he had said. I wanted to clear it up that this was not what was happening behind closed doors, and I stepped into something that I didn’t know how to handle. It hurts me to this day, thinking about how people were saying these things about me, calling me, "a coach killer," and all this crazy stuff. It upset me, it hurt a lot."

Dwight is so full of shiit, it's rather disgraceful. He has shafted the Orlando organisation in this situation and likely the Nets fO will offer tham next to nothing now that they know Dwight wants to go there and only there. In fact, I wouldn't surprised if Dwight's spoken and set this up recently or long ago with Deron and/or Nets FO.

It all seems sinister and to me, this could be the second, after the Miami getting Lebron and Bosh, setup in a few that will happen to move the nba into a league dominated by a few franchises, like in the Europe soccer leagues. That was the aim all along I think.

Proposed Dwight Howard deal to Nets could contain more than 10 players

Talks about a blockbuster four-team trade that would send Orlando Magic All-Star center Dwight Howard to the Brooklyn Nets continue to progress.

The tentacles of the proposed deal stretched across more than 10 players and three teams on Monday, with the Nets recruiting a fourth team to take on guard MarShon Brooks in exchange for an additional draft pick to send to Orlando. Nevertheless, multiple complexities need to be resolved to complete the deal, including the negotiation of contracts for four of the players in the proposed trade: Brook Lopez, Kris Humphries, Damion James and Shelden Williams.

In the proposed deal, Howard, Jason Richardson and Earl Clark would be sent to Brooklyn, and the Magic would receive the Nets' Lopez, James, Williams and Armon Johnson, Cleveland's Luke Walton and three future first-round picks, sources said. Cleveland would receive Orlando's Quentin Richardson, Brooklyn's Sundiata Gaines, Humphries (on a one-year guaranteed deal), a first-round pick and $3 million from the Nets. Brooklyn also is in talks with the Los Angeles Clippers to exchange Brooks for an additional first-round pick to send to the Magic. If the Clippers decline to participate, other teams are in position to take on Brooks, sources said.

Talks between the Magic and Nets remain fluid with some of the deal's parts moving in and out based on different scenarios. One proposed hangup to a trade: Humphries would be against taking a one-year contract with the Cavs, instead seeking a four-year deal, a league source told Y! Sports' Marc Spears. Like Humphries, Lopez, James and Williams are all free agents and would have to agree to new contracts to be included in the deal as sign-and-trades.

Despite Orlando’s desire to make Lakers center Andrew Bynum the centerpiece of a trade package, a significant stumbling block remains in Bynum’s reluctance to commit to a long-term contract if he's traded to the Magic, sources said. Orlando doesn’t want to face the possibility of trading for Bynum only to lose him to free agency after the upcoming season.

The appeal of the Lakers' potential package for Bynum has also been diminished with Los Angeles sending its 2013 and 2015 first-round draft picks to the Phoenix Suns in the Steve Nash sign-and-trade deal. The NBA doesn’t allow teams to trade first-round picks in consecutive years, so the Lakers can’t offer Orlando their 2014 and 2016 first-round picks.

The Magic are portraying patience in making a deal for Howard, but have a strong distaste for engaging in a prolonged process that drags into the summer. From new general manager Rob Hennigan through Orlando ownership, the Magic want to find the best possible deal for Howard soon and cut ties with him, sources said.

[Also: Kevin Love urges Timberwolves to upgrade their roster soon]

Bynum, 24, has one year left on his Lakers contract and has a short list of potential teams with salary-cap space and supporting cast that primarily include the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets with the Cleveland Cavaliers and a "couple others" on the list, league sources said. If Bynum remains with the Lakers past the Howard derby, he’ll have strong incentive to accept a maximum contract extension to stay in L.A., sources said. Otherwise, he has expressed a desire to test the free-agent market.

As much as Hennigan prefers to send Howard to a Western Conference team, the Magic keep coming back to the Nets as the best, safest package. Howard’s preferred trade partner – Brooklyn – has pushed into overdrive in offering up trade scenarios and options for the Magic, sources said. For now, Orlando prefers Lopez as a centerpiece player over having its pick of the Houston Rockets' roster, sources said.

The Nets started extension discussions with Lopez over the weekend, preparing for the possibility he could stay with them on a five-year deal or be moved to the Magic in a four-year contract as part of a sign-and-trade package for Howard. Lopez has been seeking a maximum contract extension --- five years for $78.6 million --- from Brooklyn, but the two sides are still negotiating a number. If Lopez is sent to the Magic in a sign-and-trade, the most he could get is $58.4 million over four years.

Hennigan has been consistent in pushing teams to offer him multiple first-round picks, as well as be able to absorb one of the Magic’s high-priced veteran contracts, including Hedo Turkoglu and Richardson, sources said.

[Also: Dislike of Rajon Rondo partly why Ray Allen chose Miami]

While the Nets are still working to use Cleveland in a potential deal, they're finding traction with two other possible scenarios to find a home for Humphries' contract, a source said.

Orlando further signaled its desire to start a complete rebuilding process when it sent restricted free-agent forward Ryan Anderson to the New Orleans Hornets on Sunday in a sign-and-trade deal. Anderson would’ve signed an offer sheet with the Hornets for $36 million over four years, and the Magic decided that was too steep a price to match. They Magic acquired backup center Gustavo Ayon in the sign-and-trade deal.

Looks like Dwight and Nets FO will get what they want. Orlando should look for better offers elsewhere if they can because they are getting nothing but moves that may or may not work for the futre in that trade.

The Brooklyn Nets have signed center Brook Lopez on a four-year, $61 million contract extension, effectively ending their pursuit of Orlando Magic All-Star Dwight Howard for the summer.

Dwight Howard might not get his wish of being traded to the Nets. Once Lopez – the centerpiece of a package the Nets offered the Magic – signed his contract Wednesday it assured that he can't be traded until Jan. 15 under NBA rules.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are eager partners in the three-way blockbuster trade talks to send Dwight Howard to the Los Angeles Lakers, but won’t proceed until the Lakers grant the them permission to talk to All-Star Andrew Bynum and his agent about the center’s willingness to sign a contract extension, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

"Cleveland will only do the deal if Bynum extends," a league official directly involved in the talks told Yahoo! Sports.

Los Angeles wants the structure of a three-team deal agreed in principle before letting Cleveland take that next step to communicate with Bynum and his representatives – and that won’t happen until Orlando makes a decision that it wants to also lock-in the framework of a trade, sources told Y!

So far, Orlando has shown a level of indecisiveness in the talks, sources involved in the negotiations said.

Bynum and Howard will be free agents next summer. Once the Brooklyn Nets lost the ability to pursue Howard, the Lakers had complete confidence that Howard would re-sign with them after next season should they trade for him. RealGM.com reported that Howard has indicated a willingness to do so, but few imagined a scenario where Howard be moved to the Lakers and walk away to take less money elsewhere as a free agent. From the Lakers' championship contention to L.A.'s massive market which could swell Howard's new sneaker deal and help him earn more endorsements, the Lakers always believed that they were an easy sell to Howard.

For the Cavaliers, it’s a different story with Bynum. He's 24 years old, and salary-cap space in Dallas and Houston could be intriguing to him. That’s why Cleveland needs the promise of a contract extension to consummate this deal. The Cavaliers believe they can sell Bynum on a partnership with one of the most dynamic young players in the sport – point guard Kyrie Irving – as well as their young core of talent and owner Dan Gilbert’s willingness to commit the resources needed to compete for championships.

Orlando wants to do a total rebuild, and has shown an inclination to make a deal that unloads itself of long-term veteran contracts and brings back young players and draft picks. The Houston Rockets also remain committed to competing with Los Angeles to make a deal for Howard.

I've yet to see what the whole deal proposed is by all three teams, but I don't know if Orlando would be getting enough out of this. They should do a straight up Dwight for Bynum plus a future 1st rounder and that's it, being a great way to transition and not be awful.

Does look like the Lakers are getting Dwight and they definately become the favourites to win it all next season to me.

I read on Magic forum that they mention a lot a few players Orlando would get, that would be all of Houston's this year's rookies as well as Parsons and Kevin Martin's expiring contract. Plus some more 1st round picks in the future. And Orlando would deal at least two of their 3 bad contracts away along with Dwight.

So, basically, Orlando will have a bunch of young players to be led by Jameer, and few other vets, and a lot of cap room for the future. That's what starting from scratch means it seems. But I don't know why they don't want to get a single star player in that deal, because player of Bynum's quality is hard to get, and draft picks and a bunch of young unproven guys is nice, but that doesn't guarantee anything. With Bynum you at least know that you get one of the two best centers in the league...along with some young talents and picks, that's not a huge loss when you look at it. You switched best center for the second best, and got some additions as well, and dished at least one bad contact.